Daniel Dixon

'Trans' is an umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender, cross dresser, non-binary, gender queer and gender fluid.

Being non-binary or gender fluid means not feeling that your gender identity fits naturally into the generic categories of male and female. Despite increasing numbers of people identifying themselves publicly as non-binary, there is still little known and understood about non-binary identities, but slowly this is beginning to improve.

What is Transphobic Bullying?

Transphobic bullying is bullying based on prejudice or negative attitudes, views or beliefs about trans people. Transphobic bullying affects young people who are trans but can also affect those questioning their gender identity as well as students who are not trans but do not conform to gender stereotypes.

For example:

Students pestering a trans young person with questions about their gender such as 'are you a real boy?' or 'are you a boy, or are you a girl?' or asking invasive questions like 'do you wear knickers or boxers?' or 'what body parts do you have?'

A girl being teased and called names referring to her as a boy or trans because she wears trousers or 'boys' clothes'

A boy who tells his friends that his dad is now his mum suffers other students laughing and repeatedly telling him 'that can't happen – your dad's a freak'

How is Transphobic Bullying different from Homophobic Bullying?

Homophobic bullying targets someone's sexuality (whether they are, or are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or heterosexual), whereas transphobic bullying targets someone because of their gender identity (whether they identify as male, female or something different, regardless of the gender they were assigned at birth) or because they do not 'conform' to traditional gender stereotypes.

It is important to recognise the difference between 'gender identity' and 'sexuality', as person's gender identity alone does not tell us anything about their sexuality.

Some statistics:

Health: Nearly half (48 per cent) of trans people under 26 said they had attempted suicide, and 30 per cent said they had done so in the past year, while 59 per cent said they had at least considered doing so.

Hate Crime: 38 per cent of trans people have experienced physical intimidation and threats and 81 per cent have experienced silent harassment (e.g. being stared at/whispered about).

At Work: over 10 per cent of trans people experienced being verbally abused and six per cent were physically assaulted at work. As a consequence of harassment and bullying, a quarter of trans people will feel obliged to change their jobs.

Education: 59 per cent of trans youth said they had deliberately hurt themselves, compared with 8.9 per cent of all 16- to 24-year-olds.

International: Almost half (46 per cent) of the LGBT people killed in the Americas in 2013-2014 were trans women Between 2008 and 2014, there were 1,612 trans people were murdered across 62 countries - equivalent to a killing every two days One in 12 trans people in Europe experience violent hate crime each year.

Sport: 66 per cent of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people felt that there were problems with homophobia and transphobia in sport and that this acted as a barrier to LGBT people taking part.